FORT WORTH, Texas – Senior forward Alexis Shannon scored her 1500th career point in the first quarter at Texas Wesleyan Thursday night, but the Evangels struggled to slow down the Lady Rams in an 80-64 loss at the Sid Richardson Center on Thursday night.
Shannon led Mid-America Christian (12-4, 5-2 Sooner Athletic Conference) with 22 points on 10-of-17 shooting to go with six rebounds to become just the fourth Evangel to break the 1500-point career scoring mark, joining Alissa Hauck (2230), Christina Schmidt (1656) and Joie Mohr (1567) on that list.
Texas Wesleyan (10-4, 5-2 SAC) got off to a lightning quick start as a Nicole Gleason three at the 5:58 mark in the first quarter capped a 14-4 start for the Lady Rams.
The Evangels started to mount a rally behind Shannon's milestone jumper with 5:34 to go, as MACU rattled off 13 of the next 18 points capped off a three-pointer by Shannon score to make it a 19-17 game with just over two-and-a-half minutes left in the period.
The Lady Rams able to curb the Evangels run, snapping back with a 7-0 run of their own to push the lead back out to nine, but Ossyana Ozoani was able to convert a fastbreak layup off a nice pass from Aaliyah Endsley to beat the buzzer, setting the score to 26-19 heading into the second quarter.
MACU struggled to close the gap much closer as a Shannon jumper at the 4:29 mark made it a six-point deficit at 34-28, but the Lady Rams closed out the period by scoring 14 of the final 16 points to hold a 48-30 edge at the halftime break.
Mid-America Christian struggled mightily from the field in the first half, shooting just 13-for-37 (35.1 percent) and was an ice cold 1-for-16 (6.3 percent) from beyond the arc. On the other side, the Lady Rams were red-hot from three in the first half, knocking down 10-for-24 (41.7 percent) and 16-of-35 (45.7 percent) from the field.
Texas Wesleyan continued to pull away in the second half, building its advantage to as much as 27 on another Gleason three-pointer with 9:37 left to play in the fourth quarter, but MACU refused to go down without a fight.
Three-pointers by Jessica Fairley on back-to-back possessions helped jumpstart a 16-2 run finished off on an Ozoani layup to make it a 75-59 game, but the Lady Rams advantage was too much to overcome.
The Evangels finished the contest by shooting 38.5 percent from the floor and 20.7 percent from the three-point arc while TWU converted on 39.4 percent from the field and tied its program record for most three-pointers made in a game by going 15-for-38 (39.5 percent).
It was an uncharacteristic game for the Evangels in the rebounding department as the nation's fifth-best rebounding team was outboarded by the Lady Rams 44-32, including a 14-8 edge on the offensive glass.
Lexi Hernandez was one of four Evangels to break into double-figures with 11 points on 3-for-8 shooting from the three-point arc while Loralei Siliga and Ozoani rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points apiece.
Mid-America Christian will look to bounce back at home on Saturday as the Evangels will host Southwestern Assemblies of God for a 2 p.m. tip-off in the Gaulke Activity Center.
